I just got done reading a October 14th draft of Robert Siegel’s The Wrestler, which is being brought to the screen by Darren Aronofsky, the filmmaker behind Pi, Requiem For A Dream and The Fountain.

Before I go any further, let me first give you a little background: I use to be a hardcore professional wrestling fanatic. Before I created /Film, in an earlier life, I ran one of the first pro wrestling news sites on the internet, called WrestleNet.com. I mainly enjoyed the interesting behind the scenes politics. I was a junkie, I loved hearing about everything and anything that was behind the scenes.

It’s actually a very interesting world, far more interesting than the stuff you see in front of the camera. And I’ve always believed that this world would be the perfect place to tell a great story. But until now every movie that has been made around the wrestling has treated the sport, the people involved in it, and the fans that love it with much disrespect (go watch Ready to Rumble for a prime example). Barry Blaustein’s documentary Beyond The Mat is one of the only films to do it right. And off the top of my head, I can’t think or a fictional film that even does it half right. So that brings us to The Wrestler.

A fan asks Randy “The Ram” Robinson to sign an old 80’s era poster while reminiscing about seeing his first wrestling match, Robinson vs. Davey Diamond at the Spectrum. “You were awesome,” the fan tells Randy. WERE being the key word.